Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 13, 2026

Badge & Hose is a trade name of GovAssess LLC ("we," "us"). This policy describes, in plain language, what data the Badge & Hose service at badgeandhose.com collects, why, and how you can have it deleted. It is written to match what our systems actually do — nothing more, nothing less.

What we collect

Account data. Your email address, first name (used as your display name), and your password — which we store only as a salted cryptographic hash, never as the password itself. We also keep the timestamps of when your account was created and when you last logged in, and short-lived tokens used for email verification and password reset. We also store whether you have opted out of marketing email, and a record of which marketing emails we have sent you (which message and when) — kept so we never send you the same message twice.

Sign-in and security data. Your IP address is recorded when you register, when you log in (successfully or not), and in our security log alongside events like account creation and purchases. Your active session record also stores the IP address it was created from. We do not collect device fingerprints, and we do not record your browser's user-agent.

Study and practice activity. Which practice questions you've been shown and answered, whether you answered correctly, timestamps, session durations, and simulation attempts with their answers, scores, and construct breakdowns. This powers your progress tracking and results history.

Behavioral practice responses. Your ratings on behavioral practice statements are stored as numbers. They are never scored against any answer key — there are no right or wrong answers, and no correctness is recorded. The self-insight trait profile is generated in your browser when you view your results; it is not stored on our servers and is never shared.

Purchase records. If you buy Full Prep: the product, purchase and expiry timestamps, your terms-acceptance timestamp, and Stripe's identifiers for the checkout session and payment. We never see or store your card number — payment happens entirely on Stripe's hosted checkout page.

What we don't collect

The Badge & Hose website sets no cookies and loads no advertising or analytics trackers in your browser. There is no Google Analytics, no ad pixels, no tag managers, no fingerprinting. The only thing stored in your browser is three temporary values (your session token, account ID, and display name) kept in session storage so you stay signed in; they are deleted when you log out or close the tab, and they are not used for tracking.

We do not sell your data. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, or anyone else except the service providers below.

Why we collect it

To operate the service (accounts, study progress, simulations, results), to secure it (verifying sign-ins, preventing fraud and abuse), to process payments, and to send transactional email — verification links, password resets, and a welcome message. If your email address is verified and you have not opted out, we may also send occasional marketing email — for example, a follow-up after you complete the free practice sampler, which may reference your own sampler results. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link that works with one click and no login; opting out is immediate and permanent unless you ask us to resume. Opting out never affects transactional email (verification links, password resets, purchase receipts). We never send marketing email to unverified addresses, and we do not use third-party marketing platforms — these messages go through the same email service as our transactional mail.

Service providers

We use a small set of processors to run the service:

  • Stripe — payment processing. Stripe receives your email address and account identifier when you check out, and handles your card details entirely under Stripe's own privacy policy.
  • Microsoft Azure — hosting and storage. All application data above lives in Azure cloud services operated by Microsoft.
  • Azure Communication Services — delivers our email, both transactional and (unless you opt out) marketing, from noreply@badgeandhose.com.
  • Azure Application Insights — server-side diagnostics that help us keep the service reliable. This telemetry is generated on our servers (your browser sends nothing to it) and is automatically deleted after 90 days.

How long we keep it

Your data is kept while your account is active. Server diagnostics auto-delete after 90 days. Security logs are kept while your account is active and for a limited period after deletion, as described below.

Deleting your account and data

Email support@badgeandhose.com from the email address on your account and ask us to delete it. Within 30 days we will delete your account and the personal data associated with it — your account record, sessions, entitlements, study progress, session history, simulation attempts and answers, and our record of marketing emails sent to you.

Three narrow exceptions:

  • Security logs (including IP addresses) are retained for 180 days after deletion for fraud prevention and payment-dispute defense, then deleted.
  • Payment records held by Stripe are retained by Stripe under its own policies; we cannot delete Stripe's transaction records, which also serve as our legally required accounting records.
  • Server diagnostics expire on their own 90-day schedule.

Children

The Service is intended for adults preparing for employment examinations. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date above reflects the current version, and material changes will be noted on this page.

Added marketing email with one-click opt-out — September 13, 2026.

Contact

Privacy questions and deletion requests: support@badgeandhose.com.